Sunday, February 15, 2009

Indy, IMAX and pink potatoes

Howdy, all. Back from Indianapolis, kids are in bed, and I am full of ground beef and cheese sauce. It was a good weekend, and as you can probably guess, we were successful at securing Marvins the second time around. More on that later.

We had a great time this weekend with our friends, Darren and Jennie. It's been a while since we've been to Indy (so long, in fact that they were able to birth and child and create a new one). Needless to say, it was good to catch up, to hang around, to eat a lot of candy and cake, to brave the mall together on Valentines Day, have our portraits taken and to enjoy a lot of red meat. Did I mention that there was a lot of eating done on this trip?

Here are the highlights:

Darren's attempt at a GCB...a pretty noble effort, I might add. The type of bun was different, but the taste and the garlic was spot on. In my desire to have a GCB, I went way overboard here, and the beef was, no kidding, taking over my entire body. Somewhere, about mid-lung, a battle was fought for ultimate control, and it appears the good guys won.

These are my kind of roses (cute idea, don't you think?). They were allies to the beef in the battle for my soul. These flowers have already converted to fat and will definitely last forever.

Build-A-Bear on Valentines Day. We live in the birthplace of Build-A-Bear. We've been in that store countless times and made a few bears prior to this outing. Never have I seen any of the stores in the Lou crowded in any way. Build-A-Bear in Indy was PACKED. We're talking about a 20 minute line before any stuffing was officially placed in the bears. Note to Build-A-Bear: Indy is your target city.

The family portrait...taken on a whim, at Picture People in Castleton Mall. All 11 of us entered the photo studio, posed and walked back out within 4 minutes. Impressive. Take a close look at my little red head, on the left (in the striped shirt)...he looks like he is about to puke. And apparently, only the kids were supposed to scream, but I didn't get that memo.

Making pink mashed potatoes with Uncle Darren.

Spent. Three down on the way to the IMAX theatre. You heard me, I said IMAX...with 4 young children.

So we arrive at the theatre to learn the movie is in 3-D. COOL! But wait. That means keeping glasses on four little kids. Yikes...see below.

Okay, SOOOOOOO worth it, because this is, maybe, one of my favorite pictures of all time. It totally sums up what happens when you take multiple children of young/immature ages to a movie, and then expect them to wear glasses for the entire 45 minutes. Three of the four pairs hit the floor 7 minutes in, and they sent poor L cross eyed. We survived it though, because the movie was about sea creatures (right up their alley) and we bribed them with Swedish fish and popcorn. I'm thankful that we're in the "almost-anything-can-be-endured-with-bribes/treats/the threat of punishment" phase of parenting.

After the movie, we headed back west...out of Indy and into Greencastle. Ah, Greencastle. I will elaborate, hopefully tomorrow, but I need to do some pre-digital research first. Let's just say it was good.